From the Zulu medicine to the European phytomedicine Umckaloabo

Abstract

Among the Zulus of South Africa a crude root drug of initially unknown botanical origin was used for the treatment of pulmonary diseases and tuberculosis (TB). An English TB patient called "Stevens" heard about it and travelled to South Africa where, according to his account, he was cured by taking an extract of the crude drug. It was extremely difficult to establish the imported crude herbal drug as a "new TB medicine", as neither the plant from which the drug originated was identified nor were the constituents and pharmacological effects known at that time. It was only after a professional search and initial chemical and taxonomic investigations enabled the identity of the plant to be determined that the requirements were met for comprehensive chemical, pharmacological and clinical research into the crude drug. The following report traces the long and difficult path of this "mystery drug" from the Zululand of South Africa to the laboratories of Europe.